Colombia regulator working on measures to oust illegal operators

Juan Hidalgo, the head of the Colombia gambling regulator Coljuegos, is focused on excluding unlicensed operators from the country’s recently legalised, regulated and licensed online gambling industry, and in a Finance Ministry briefing this week outlined the measures that are being deployed.

The regulator has already implemented a blacklist and has started trying to set up ISP-blocking, although it admits that it has, as have others, encountered some technical difficulties in that regard.

Hidalgo revealed that a second option – disrupting financial transactions between Colombian online punters and illegal operators – is also planned, and that Coljuegos has engaged with the nation’s financial sector in seeking an effective way of implementing this tactic.

Coljuegos is picking up the pace in terms of its contribution to government coffers, reporting a 27 percent year-on-year rise in payments to the national health fund at around the equivalent of US$170 million.

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